tomatoes and whipped ricotta on toasted bread

I’m just letting you all in on the lunch you and I can now have until the end of summer. Go ahead and have it all year long but right now this very month of the summer? It’s just right.

So many things are not just right and frankly I try really hard not to make it my goal anymore to get it all right. Nevertheless when things are a little off I can get a little cranky. But it’s ooookay, I’m telling myself. It’s ok to not get things right, AND it’s equally ok not to love it when things go awry.

Like the other day. My oven was on because an honest and lovely friend tried a recipe of mine, and it was a dry failure for her. Blast. I made it again to see if I could solve the problem. Maybe I missed something, or could add a tip or two.

It’s ok, I told myself. I care about these things and that’s ooookay.

Making a recipe for the nth time was a choice I made because I love to cook and share correct information, but the fact that my less than a year old air conditioner decided to malfunction on the very same day was not ideal. I just happened to hear the weather report and a humid air mass was on it’s way. Hahaha. Well it certainly was! Of course. It’s all gonna be okay, I repeated.

I imagined this lunch for a few days before I collected it onto this plate. I was looking for a light lunch to bring to the cabin with some friends a few weeks ago. I kept picturing blue skies, kind faces, a slight warm breeze off the lake and this lunch. It felt a little random, but a bits and pieces kind of lunch is random, in the best possible way.

I came home the next week and made it for a friend who is pretty much rocking the “it’s ok to not be ok” thing right now, even though her circumstances severely stink. This time an honest and empathetic afternoon with this lunch were the fit of the day.

And for the 3rd time, these very willing and hungry housemates gobbled it up asking for more.

It’s official: humans love this lunch.

The thing about just right is that it changes with seasons and circumstances though. Don’t waste another second in the grocery aisle trying to decide what to have on hand for lunch this week. It’s summer. Go find yourself some tomatoes, as close as you can get to your home, and let it change your life–even if it’s just for a moment of gratitude in the midst of a cranky afternoon.

Here are some thoughts to get you started. Pull it apart, mix it up, and use your imagination. If it sounds good to you, I promise it will sound good to someone else.

There are no words to describe just how ‘right’ this post and this lunch and this experience has been for me. I got to love e my lunch twice and then read about it and get a recipe for it. Love, love, love all around 🙂

Spending my morning reviewing these recipes and making a grocery list. When I came across this one, I started dreaming about summer, and my mouth is watering remembering how perfect this lunch was one afternoon at the cabin last year. : )